Peter
Thiel, Founders Fund in conversation with Caroline Daniel from
the Financial Times on the Web Summit Centre Stage at the 2014
Web Summit on November 6, 2014 in Dublin,
Ireland.Tristan Fewings/Getty
Images

Last month Stemcentrx raised a $250 million round at a $5 billion
valuation, according to the Journal.

Stemcentrx was "largely unknown outside
biotechnology circles" prior to emerging from stealth operation,
according to the Journal.

The startup wants to cure cancer by killing
cancer stem cells — the cells that spread cancer through the
human body and resist cancer treatments.

The startup has five drugs in clinical trials, according to
the Journal. If the company is successful, patients who take
Stemcentrx drugs and also undergo chemotherapy treatments could
stand to improve their odds of beating cancer.

Peter Thiel's Founders Fund and Artis Ventures are among
Stemcentrx's investors. And Founders Fund's investment in
Stemcentrx is the biggest the VC firm has ever made, the Journal
reports.

Peter Thiel's "fight against death" has been well-documented.
His Breakout
Labs funds "radical science" and "bold ideas,"
including ways to cool organs to preserve them and projects that
grow bones from stem cells.

Thiel thinks that the "great enemy" of humanity is death. "I
believe that evolution is a true account of nature," he
told the Washington Post. "But I think we should try to
escape it or transcend it in our society."